Perl::Critic::Policy::Compatibility::PerlMinimumVersionAndWhy - explicit Perl version for features used

This policy is part of the Perl::Critic::Pulp|Perl::Critic::Pulp addon. It requires that you have an explicit use 5.XXX etc for the Perl syntax features you use, as determined by Perl::MinimumVersion|Perl::MinimumVersion.

    use 5.010;       # the // operator is new in perl 5.010
    print $x // $y;  # ok

If you don't have Perl::MinimumVersion then nothing is reported. Certain nasty hacks are used to extract reasons and locations from Perl::MinimumVersion.

This policy is under the "compatibility" theme (see POLICY THEMES in Perl::Critic). Its best use is when it picks up things like // or qr which are only available in a newer Perl than you meant to target.

An explicit use 5.xxx can be tedious, but makes it clear what's needed (or supposed to be needed) and it gives a good error message if run on an older Perl.

The config options below let you limit how far back to go. Or if you don't care at all about this sort of thing you can always disable the policy completely from your ~/.perlcriticrc file in the usual way (see CONFIGURATION in Perl::Critic),

    [-Compatibility::PerlMinimumVersionAndWhy]

Some mangling is applied to what Perl::MinimumVersion normally reports (as of its version 1.28).

• A multi-constant hash with the constant|constant module is not reported, since that's covered better by Compatibility::ConstantPragmaHash.
• Module requirements like use Errno are dropped, since you might get a back-port from CPAN etc and any need for a module is better expressed in a distribution "prereq".
  
  But pragma modules like use warnings are still reported. They're normally an interface to a feature new in the Perl version it comes with and can't be back-ported. (See OTHER NOTES below too.)

The following extra checks are added to Perl::MinimumVersion.

5.10 for

• qr//m, since "m" modifier doesn't propagate correctly on a qr until 5.10
• pack() new < and > endianness

5.8 for

• new word [newline] => fat comma quoting across a newline.
  
  For earlier Perl word ended up a function call. It's presumed such code is meant to quote in the 5.8 style, and thus requires 5.8 or higher.
• pack() new F native NV, D long double, i IV, j UV, () group, [] repeat count

5.6 for

• new exists &subr, exists $array[0] and delete $array[0] support.
• new 0b110011 binary number literals.
• new open(my $fh,...) etc auto-creation of filehandle.
• syswrite() length parameter optional.
• pack() new Z asciz, q,Q quads, ! native size, / counted string, # comment

5.005 for

• new Foo::Bar:: double-colon package name quoting
• new my ($x, undef, $y) = @values, using undef as a dummy in a my list

5.004 for

• new use 5.xxx Perl version check through use. For earlier Perl it can be BEGIN { require 5.000 } etc
• new __PACKAGE__ special literal
• new foreach my $foo lexical loop variable
• new $coderef->() call with ->
• new sysseek builtin function
• pack() new w BER integer

pack() and unpack() format strings are only checked if they're literal strings or here-documents without interpolations, or . operator concats of those.

above_version (version string, default none)

Set a minimum version of Perl you always use, so that reports are only about things higher than this and higher than the document declares. The value is anything the version.pm|version module understands.

    [Compatibility::PerlMinimumVersionAndWhy]
    above_version = 5.006

For example if you always use Perl 5.6 and set 5.006 like this then you can have our package variables without an explicit use 5.006.

skip_checks (list of check names, default none)

Skip the given MinimumVersion checks (a space separated list). The check names are shown in the violation message and come from Perl::MinimumVersion::CHECKS. For example,

    [Compatibility::PerlMinimumVersionAndWhy]
    skip_checks = _some_thing _another_thing

This can be used for checks you believe are wrong, or where the compatibility matter only affects limited circumstances which you understand.

The check names are likely to be a bit of a moving target, especially the Pulp additions. Unknown checks in the list are quietly ignored.

use warnings is reported as a Perl 5.6 feature since its lexically-scoped fine grain warnings control is new in that version. If targeting earlier versions then it's often enough to drop use warnings, make sure your code runs cleanly under perl -w, and leave it to applications to use -w (or set $^W) or not, as they might desire.

warnings::compat offers a use warnings for earlier Perl, but it's not lexical, instead setting $^W globally. Doing that from a module is probably not a good idea, but in a script it could be an alternative to #!/usr/bin/perl -w (per perlrun).

Perl::Critic::Pulp, Perl::Critic

Perl::Critic::Policy::Modules::PerlMinimumVersion, which is similar, but compares against a Perl version configured in your ~/.perlcriticrc rather than a version in the document.

Perl::Critic::Policy::Modules::RequirePerlVersion

http://user42.tuxfamily.org/perl-critic-pulp/index.html

Copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 Kevin Ryde

Perl-Critic-Pulp is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3, or (at your option) any later version.

Perl-Critic-Pulp is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Perl-Critic-Pulp. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.